Former Seymour star Sigl finds new running path

GREEN BAY – Tyler Sigl has accomplished a lot during his running career, including winning the NCAA Division III cross-country title in 2007 while attending the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.

The Seymour product has made some transitions throughout the years, from excelling in shorter distance runs to tackling the marathon scene after graduation.

But Sigl made perhaps his biggest change a few years ago. His marathon times had plateaued and he couldn’t seem to get over the hump. Training became a chore each day.

He had, for a moment at least, started to fall out of love with the sport.

So what do you do when that happens? If you're Sigl, you start running ultra 50-mile races.

Sigl signed up for the North Face Endurance Challenge in Madison in 2013 mostly on a whim. He figured he’d give it a try since there really was nothing to lose.

Oh, and he didn’t lose.

Sigl, 30, won the event and returned to win again in 2014 and 2015.

His longest training run for his first ultra race had been 31 miles. He’d be the first to admit that a lot can happen in those final 19 miles. It was a mystery game for him, but one he mastered while on the job.

The 31 miles in that first race became 35. Then 40. Before he knew it, he had won the whole thing.

“At first you start running, and I didn’t know how to taper myself for a 50-mile race,” Sigl said. “I’ve never run that far before. So I just ran with the first group of guys and felt good and kept going and outdistanced those guys.

“I went back the next year and did the same thing again.”

In July, just three years after he started this new adventure, Sigl was selected to run for the United States in October at the 2016 IAU Trail World Championships in Portugal.

He earned an automatic spot with his win at the Cayuga Trails 50 Mile in Ithaca, N.Y., one year after finishing third at the same event.

“I always go back to they always say that running is 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical,” Sigl said. “I think if you are successful at one distance, you can carry that any distance you want as long as you put your mind to it.”

The World Championships didn’t go how Sigl hoped. He had been fighting some illnesses leading up to it, although he felt good the day of the race and started off well.

But things began to go bad during the competition. By the time he made his way to aide station No. 2, he was running on fumes and trying his best to continue in order to help his teammates. The top three from each team earn points.

He arrived at the last aide station at Mile 44, which he said he “crawled and stumbled to.”

“I finally got to that last aide station and my body had already shut down 10 miles earlier,” Sigl said. “Our fourth guy finally went past me a little before that and it was like, ‘Yup, time to call it a day.’

“For the most part, in your everyday race it’s easier to accept it. But when you are on the world stage like that and have to drop out, it’s a little heartbreaking. It’s a little more emotional and harder to do. But better to drop out then end up someplace out in the middle of nowhere and not be able to go on.”

It was unseasonably warm on the day of the race, and Sigl wasn’t the only one for Team USA to drop out. Of the seven that competed for the team — three missed the event with injuries — only four reached the finish line. It made for a 15th place finish, one year after finishing runner-up.

Sigl still labeled the experience a dream. He enjoyed being part of a team again, too.

The focus now shifts to the Chuckanut 50K in Fairhaven, Wash., in March, when Sigl hopes to again qualify for the United States Trail World Team that will compete in Italy in June.

“If that race goes well, I’ll go over to Italy and see how the fall shakes out,” Sigl said. “If it doesn’t go well, it’s back to the drawing board.”